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Fulton Area Celebrated for "Creative Placemaking"

Fulton Area in Brooklyn is part of one of America’s Top 12 ArtPlaces in 2013

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

The Fulton St. area in Brooklyn is part one of "America’s Top 12 ArtPlaces" by Art Place, a collaboration of 13 leading national and regional foundations and eight federal agencies including the National Endowment for the Arts. The full area comprises the intersection of Downtown Brooklyn, Fort Greene, Gowanus, Park Slope & Prospect Heights.

How did it get that way and how does it keep going stronger than ever?

The report details the deep cultural roots in the neighborhood fostered over the decades by the people who live and work here. Business have played a role (and continue to do so) in celebrating the creative energy that is so much a part of the area. Key influencers mentioned in the report include Brooklyn Moon, Greenlight Bookstore, BAM, MoCADA, BRIC Media Arts, Mark Morris Dance Center, Bang on a Can Ensemble, Bomb Magazine, Barclays Center as well as pioneering jazz musicians, writers, visual artists and more.

The selection by ArtPlace America of the top 12 neighborhoods was based on a set of six indicators identified by Impresa Inc., a Portland-based consulting firm specializing in the study of metropolitan economies.

Four indicators measure ingredients of vibrancy:

the number of retail and service businesses

the percentage of independent businesses

the neighborhood’s Walk Score

the percentage of workers in creative occupations living in the neighborhood.

Two arts-related indicators were also used:

number of arts-related non-profits

number of arts-related businesses.

Finally, neighborhood scores were normalized for family income so that neighborhoods with the highest concentration of income did not skew the results.